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Tuesday, January 13, 2009

December Newsblog

Hey Everyone,

November saw the election of Barrack Obama here in the US. It was truly a historical and inspirational day. Congratulations to all those voters, regardless of political persuasion, who got out to vote.

We had alot of festivals to do in October. The Roots n Blues n BBQ festival in Columbia, Missouri was beyond huge- there had to be over 100 000 people attending. Incredible weather and a multi stage, multi artist festival- it was very cool to be apart of. We saw Bettye Lavette, Buddy Guy, Tab Benoit and many many more. Columbia is a very unique college town full of art and music, I really hope I get to visit it again soon.

The Pleasure Island Seafood Jazz & Blues Fest in North Carolina was one WET festival. We were really surprised that we got to play. The festival director had told us that we probably wouldnt perform but we went to the festival grounds anyway. Low & behold, the music was jammin, a fairly decent crowd in wet weather gear & umbrellas fronted the stage and all was a go. Johnny & Edgar Winter were the head liners that night & I guess people really wanted to see this legendary act. The wind was howling and the rain was pelting down, but the folks of North Carolina hang in there and they got to see the Winter brothers perform.

The following week the band & I took part in the outreach program of the LEAF festival. We did a didgeridoo workshop / presentation to the Black Mountain Elementary School, North Carolina. We followed up the next day with Aboriginal art, dance and the making of didgeridoos. It was a lot of fun. We also performed at the LEAF festival that weekend. And what a beautiful location, surrounded by mountains and a good sized lake. The weather was warm but absolutely freezing at night and when youre on an out door stage, you really feel it. This was a really cool festival with amazing diversity of music. Then we headed to PA, NY , MA & Maine for shows at Tully's, The Dinosaur BBQs, Harry's, Inn on the Blues and our favorite Halloween party- The Time Out Pub in Rockland. We also did a Halloween party on the Oct 31 at Rubes in Michigan & got to see some amazing costumes. We also visited our favorite home gig at The Fire Fly in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

In November we headed south to Florida, Alabama and Mississippi for the incredible River Hawk Music Festival. River Hawk was alot of fun. Some really great music was heard and the vibe was friendly and relaxed. We hung out after our show by a warm fire and listened to some acoustic bluegrass jammers.

In December we have our first tour of Belgium coming up with an addtional tour to England and Wales. The session we recorded at the BBC Radio 2, London - "The Paul Jones Show" in May will be aired on Monday December 8